thriller retrospective.

so the thriller project is finally over for u1 36. its been a rollercoaster 4 weeks in which there has been fallouts, laughs, tears and lots of useless footage. yet i think the whole group has gained invaluable experience that we can all use in later projects, and in later life.

from day 1 our aim to produce a thriller that is exciting and eye catching has always been a priority. we have changed our ideas numerous times, yet the aim has always been there. looking back at the finished project, id say its exactly sticking to our aim.

so here it is, our thriller project "under your skin"

positive feedback

In Today's lesson we went around the classroom giving feedback to each other's thrillers.
I am writing out the positive feedback:


How varied did you find our camera work?

• 1st group said "Very good rang of shots and very experimental."
• 2nd group said " Very very good variety of shots and experimental. I liked he 'kiss' shot." (It's not a kiss shot though, It's Tarkwin blowing)
• 3rd group said " Lots of close ups and we liked the close up of Tarkwin blowing dust."

• 4th group said "Good use of shots."

Do you understand what's happening with he parallel editing?

• 1st group didn't say anything (we don't think they know what parallel editing is.)
• 2nd group said " The piece works well."
• 3rd and 4th group did not say anything nice. :(

Did you think the setting/mise-en-scene etc was appropriate and why?

• 1st group said " Setting is in the woods is 'good'."
• 2nd group said " Good use of props, mask and flower. good settings for a thriller."
• 3rd group said " It's very abstract and good lighting."
• 4th group didn't say anything nice again...
  

Did the structure make the story line clear?

• Only the 2nd group had a nice response which was " A bit unclear but that's normal for a thriller as all shall be explained in the rest of the film."

What do you think of the titles? do you think they look good on stills?

• Very simple, works well with footage
• Simplistic which works
• Titels were plain, quite simple - worked well.

SOUND

• Good audio
• sound worked well.

thriller reviews bad points

U1 35 said-

- bright colours, gave a cute and happy atmoshpere
-vaguely clear
-pixelated titles
-drums sounded bad in the music, gives wrong atmosphere

U1 34 said-

-storyline is unclear
-title needed to be brighter
-music needed to be faded out at the end

U1 32 said-

-no range in the camera work
-unclear story
-mask made an anonymous member (rowena) laugh. apparently not scary.
-vaguely clear
-some uncertainty
-no capital letters in captions
-music doesnt fit well with the thriller.

U1 31 said-

-doesnt suit thriller genre (well its hardly a comedy is it)
-storyline very unclear
-parralel editing makes it more confusing.
-some of the spelling of titles not corect (isnt that a spelling mistake tho?)
-random setting and some shots didnt make sense.

Deadline

The deadline is today, and for the first time in a while, it looks like we are on track.

At the moment, Dom and Lucy are working on the soundtrack. There has been a slight disagreement about the final title, as it is in a different font.

One clip was pixelated due to the age of the camera, but we cut out the frames in which the pixels were fractured.

Today we are going to edit the titles to look more interesting.

We will all be staying behind for an extra 20 minutes of editing time.

Today's Lesson

Today's lesson has involved editing footage and creating titles.

With extra time and a spare computer, I have also begun the soundtrack. With new, differently styled footage, we have to change the ideas for non-diegetic sound.

The rest of the group have their minds set to 'Emotion Piano' on Garageband, but initially they thought the '03' was the best option. In my opinion, '07' sounds better with the new footage of the mask. I will now ask the rest of the groups for their opinions.

The whole group is staying in the media room over lunch, as the deadline is fast approaching! How thrilling!

Today's Lesson and the extra time.

In the lesson we caught some extra footage of the mask on a table. We thought that it was really good, and although we were hoping to use both locations, the black room (which we used today) was ultimately more successful.

After the lesson I stayed behind for an extra hour and a half, uploaded the new footage, cut the clips, but all was lost! Fortunately, I had enough time to re-upload and cut the clips again.

The camera given to use was old, so didn't only have the option of auto-focus. This feature worked to our advantage, but the microphone was faulty. Thankfully we didn't need the audio, and the 'fuzzly' noise has given me a few good ideas for a soundtrack.

More from the rest of the group later, but from me, goodbye!

Thriller Rough cut

Please bear in mind....
we have no soundtrack.
we need to do titles.
we still need to film more footage
and we haven't arranged clips or done any editing.
Thank you and goodnight.

In today's lesson all other groups viewed our rough cut and this is some of the feedback we received...

STRENGTHS:

• Good variation of cinamatography
• The low angle shot was well thought out
• Good use of props
• Good use of close ups
• Good setting and scenary
• Looks like it would be good when finished

WEAKNESSES:

• No audio
• Un-clear narrative
• no titles
• no sound
• unsure of what is happening
• clips move too fast
• need parallel editing.

We're soon going to make an action plan...

In This Lesson

This lesson is the deadline lesson for our rough cut.

Seeing as we only have around half an hour of unedited footage, we will certainly not have a totally clear view of the final product, but it will give a good idea.

If there is enough time after we have produced the roughcut, we will go out to film some more.

new plot synopsis

a police detective is sent to investigate a number of dissappearances from gant city, all of which seem to be directly involved with the nearby nature reserve, greenhill forest. all of the people now missing were last seen in that forest, doing everyday activitys that would seem to have no apparent risk attached. yet for all of them its heralded their dissappearance.

detective sandra blake now needs to establish the link between the trees and the women that vanished from them. on her first visit she discovers an abandoned hut with a door concealed under the timbers on the floor. as she opens it, sandra is struck from behind and knocked out.

she then awakes in a new part of the woods, alone, frightened and weak. she needs to escape before anymore harm is done to her. as she runs, she realises that the forest huge, and she is being followed from behind. a masked man grabs her and starts clawing wildly at her skin with huge claws, causing considerable and deep wounds to her arm. sandra is able to fight him off and runs for her life, as the masked man pursues her.

as sandra is running she spots more and more of the same gaunt men, who follow chase with the other man when they notice her. there are so many of them all chasing her, trying to grab at to kill her. as sandra runs she notices rotting carcasses on the ground, almost certainly the people who had been reported missing.

sandra stops running when she notices that the beasts have given up the chase.

part 2 to follow, when we have some more ideas!!

Filming

Lucy and Dom have been out today filming and are now being critised for a lack of impressive footage.

To make up for it, when the other two members of the group have seperated the clips, we will all go out together and try and get some more shots from interesting angles, and we will think about a USP.

New location stills

In today's lesson we went out and took photos of our new location skills.

New idea..

Since filming in Ely on Monday we have decided to scrap the Greenhill idea as Anna's house looked too 'happy' and we do not have enough time to record more footage.

Our new idea is a basic thriller set in a forest with somehting evil there stalking the group of peolpe there.

We are basing our new idea on a film previously made called 'Haunted Forest'

Credit List For Thriller Opening Sequence

Greenhill Production presents:

A EyeInfection Film

Dom Vickers
Lucy Goodchild
Anna O'Hanlon

Costume Design by Flick House

Art Direction by Philip Tom

Production Design Scott Dody

Casting by Simon Bailey

Film Editing by Matthew King

Cinematography by John Phillips

Produced by Grant Sullivan

Directed by Steve Thorne

13 O'Clock

Today's Lesson

With 47 minutes of footage, and a problem with the iMac, today seemed a little bit of a waste.

We're running out of lessons and struggling slightly.

We plan to make up for today's lesson tomorrow and the next day.

First Day of Filming

In our opinion, today has been extremely successful. We have 47 minutes of footage, of course, not all useable, but including a few good ideas. a video montage of our day, and some of the outtakes will be posted later on tonight.

We did not stick to our storyboard/animatic exactly, as there are other locations to shoot and some shots did not go to plan. We didn't expect them all to though, so the group wasn't entirely let-down.

Today was very fun, and has proved that once again, our group can work very well together and be able to finish the work in hand whilst having a laugh too.

Recently in lessons, members of the group have been very distracting/distractable, but the seriousness of the task is settling in. We are quite proud of the footage caught today and we really hope that the teacher/the class will be too.

Location Shots (2)

In today's lesson we went to look at potential locations for the hospital scenes. We used the college's medical room to creat a realistic effect and we also used to sports changing rooms in order to get a similar effect. The medical room was most effective for the hospital scene whereas when Simon sees the white light the light in the changing rooms are more suitable.



Dom Vickers and Anna O'Hanlon

Medical Gloves

Taps Running in the Medical Room

The Fold-Down Bed

Contraption For Lifting People (Looks Scientific, eh?)

Light in Medical Room (In Our Opinion Not 'Laboratory-Like' Enough)

Anna O'Hanlon Wearing Medical Gloves (Antagonist Will Wear These For the 'Experimentation' Scene.)

Scary Alley-Way at College (Could Be Used)

Changing Room Lights (More Laboratory-Like :D)

Location Shots (1)

These pictures were taken for 'Simon Greenhill's' neighbourhood and home.
This blog is really showing the other group member's my house and city to gather feedback on whether it would be suitable or not.

Shooting Dates

We have arranged the date on which will film. We plan to collect a lot of footage, which will cover the most part of the sequence on Monday 18th.

The camera will be in our posession from Wednesday 1pm - Tuesday 9am.

Influences/Inspiration

Today we looked on youtube.com for videos we thought set an impressive cinematographic example. We found this, a video I remember from childhood that has always stuck in my memory due to it's shock-tactics.


While the character 'Terry' tells us of killing a girl in a drink-driving incident, a montage of gruesome and chilling footage flashes.. the footage is hard to decipher, which makes the audience curious and somewhat tenser. The micro features and the thrilling macro features (narrative and genre) work together to enable us to identify and almost empathise with the protagonist.
The group agrees with me that this is an inspiration and we will think about the cinematography and compare it with our other influences'.

Conventions of a Traditional Thriller

Today I have been researching the characteristics of a conventional thriler. I found an item on wikipedia.org (not always a reliable source, but in this case I believe we can trust it.)

There are select piece of information we have jotted in our Media Studies 'orange books' from this article:

Thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, polar regions, or high seas. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen, or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women have become increasingly common.

Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others. In thrillers influenced by film noir and tragedy, the compromised hero is often killed in the process.

In recent years, when thrillers have been increasingly influenced by horror or psychological-horror exposure in pop culture, an ominous or monstrous element has become common to heighten tension. The monster could be anything, even an inferior physical force made superior only by their intellect (Saw), a supernatural entity (Dracula, Christine books, The Amityville Horror, The Ring), aliens (H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos books), serial killers (Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Psycho), or even microbes or chemical agents (Cabin Fever, Richard Matheson's The Last Man On Earth, 28 days later). Some authors have made their mark by incorporating all of these elements (Richard Laymon, F. Paul Wilson) throughout their bibliographies.

Similar distinctions separate the thriller from other overlapping genres: adventure, spy, legal, war, maritime fiction, and so on. Thrillers are defined not by their subject matter but by their approach to it. Many thrillers involve spies and espionage, but not all spy stories are thrillers. The spy novels of John le Carré, for example, explicitly and intentionally reject the conventions of the thriller. Conversely, many thrillers cross over to genres that traditionally have had few or no thriller elements. Alistair MacLean, Hammond Innes, and Brian Callison are best known for their thrillers, but are also accomplished writers of man-against-nature sea stories.

Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they exhibit: excitement. In short, if it 'thrills', it is a thriller.

Also, there was an article on the site about sub-genre.

We have the main synopsis, but I'm going to discuss these options before I confirm the sub-genre(s) on this blog:
Action thriller
Crime thriller
Disaster thriller
Drama thriller
Eco-thriller
Horror thriller
Legal thriller
Medical thriller
Political thriller
Psychological thriller
Spy thriller
Supernatural thriller
Techno-thriller

In all honesty, after having read the explanations of all of the sub-genres, I'd love to involve as many of the themes from all the options as possible, not forgetting that the opening sequence is a mere 4 minutes long!

In Today's Lesson

Today the teacher presented my group's animatic to the rest of the class.

The animatic was quite unclear, but the feedback was mixed. Some people liked the ideas and would like to see a film with a similar USP (Unique Selling Point). However, members of the class and the teacher disliked the idea of drug-abuse, thinking it was a bit strong. We shall soften some of the themes involved because of this.

The Animatic

As forementioned, we will take the opinions and feedback of the teacher's and class' into account.

In Recent Lessons

The past few lessons we have been taking photos on Photobooth of our hand drawn story board and editing the clips to plan how would choose have them in the final piece. We have also included transitions from clip to clip, such as fading in and dissolving out etc.

We then made a rough piece of music on Garageband to fit the story of our thriller. We were running out of time so the quality of our soundtrack is poor but we like to think it still fits our project. We are thinking of using this soundtrack as a base for our final sequence but we need to add sound effects and use diagetic and non-diegetic sounds too.

On Final Cut we added the soundtrack to our clips and perfected any notable mistakes. We now have a rough idea of the storyline of our opening sequence's general look.

Plot Synopsis

It's December 2066 and Simon Greenhill (Dom Vickers) has found himself in a difficult situation. Drugs, drink and no money have brought him a life he never ever wanted. Living in poverty, he has become a subject of interest for crazed psychologist/scientist Hugo Brentt (Oliver Eagle-Wilsher). Unknown to the unemployed Greenhill, he is being watched by brentt and his associates.

As things start to get progressively worse for Greenhill, he ends up taking an overdose. He takes as many pills as he can find to end his awful life there and then, but it fails. He awakes in a hospital bed and meets the man who has ruined his last few months. In a fit of rage he escapes from the hospital and makes a run for the city border.

On his way, he is confronted by Brentt who warns him that he has been infected with a lethal virus that lays dormant until Brentt gives the order and activates it remotely, destroying Simon from the inside out. Brentt informs Simon that if he chooses to resist the experiments the doctor wishes to perform on him, he will activate the virus.

Greenhill is forced to comply and returns to the lab where Brentt runs some hideous procedures, both on Simon's brain and his looks are warped as a side effect. Eventually, Simon refuses to be experimented on any longer. Whilst being transferred to yet another test, he breaks free of his captors and runs to the city walls. Once again he is confronted Brentt, who is much less sympathetic and decides the final test is the virus test that will eventually kill him.

Brentt informs simon that he has 12 hours of life remaining and that he is not a concern of his anymore. Simon sets about planning his revenge in the limited time he has left. He raids brents office and steals some confidential files, including the one containing information on the virus. However, Simon is to be disappointed, as the file does not contain the the chemical name of the antidote.

On closer inspection, Simon does find a potential way of revenge against Brentt. He passes on the virus to him, by seducing him, after finding out that Brentt has a love obsession with him, the reason he showed such an interest in the first place.

They both die in each other's arms. The End.

Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas
Male protagonist
Drug addiction
Murder
Kidnap
Scientific experimentation
Mad antagonist (female)

Props
Syringe
Bed (+pillow)
Table
Photos
Bin
Bin bag
Door
Glass table
"Cocaine"
£5
Pathway
Baseball bat
White light
Hospital bed


Costume
Boxer shorts
Bracelet
Socks
Black trainers
3/4 Jeans
White t-shirts
Black glove

This Is Us...

THIS IS OUR GROUP :D

Are we not GREAT?

Professional Video

This is a professional video of a thriller sequence. It is from the film "Momento" where the sequence is reversed instead of running in sequence. It first shows a polaroid of what is to come in reverse with the titles running in the correct way. This idea faces the audience with confusion. They dont know why the photo shows a dead man, and are intrigued, and then later on in the sequence, it shows us how something like this came about.

Its a clever way of making the audience think about the sequence and to make them put the parts together afterwards. The basic idea is, if you dont watch the title sequence carefully, you wont understand it. This is why we like this example the best and could well use it in our own thriller sequence.

Student Video

To edit.